URINE ANALYSIS HELPS TO DETECT PREGNANCY COMPLICATIONS

Urine analysis or commonly known as urinalysis is quiet important during pregnancy and should be monitored to avoid a variety of complications. Dr Ontibile Kebadirang of Masha Clinic explains that, usually, they use a urinalysis as a screening test which helps a doctor come up with a diagnosis. “This is a type of medical testing done on a urine sample. A urinalysis can be done by the doctor or lab technician in what we commonly call urine dipstick test. Another type of urinalysis would be a microscopic exam in which a few drops of urine are examined under a microscope in a lab,” she says noting that it is used commonly in antenatal care during a pregnancy check-up to help screen for conditions like urinary tract infections and proteinuria. Dr Kebadirang says these conditions can be heavily implicated in Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia syndromes, which is why it is important for the urinalysis to be carried out each visit of prenatal care. She further adds that, it is also very useful for when one has complaints like passing urine frequently, blood in urine, or lower abdominal pains. “A urine dipstick can test for many substances in urine depending on the manufacture, but usually a combination of blood, bilirubin, proteins, nitrites, ketones, leukocytes, glucose, specific gravity and PH,” Dr Kebadirang clarifies. She also highlights that, Urine dipstick is a rapid kind of test in which an analysis of a urine sample can be done in two minutes and therefore it should not be neglected as it does not even take long.

However, some patients who often visit government facilities, lament that they hardly have this urinalysis process done on them. “I am a first time mother and on my third trimester, and ninth month to be precise but I have never had a urine sample taken from me, from the government clinic that I use,” says one expectant mother. She tells Sun Health that, she only learnt about this from other expectant mothers from other clinics, and fears that this may put them at risk, if some midwives can go a long way without introducing the urinalysis process.

Dr Kebadirang says Pre-eclampsia is one common condition that may arise if a urinalysis was not carried out during the process of pregnancy, which is why it is important to do it. She refers to it as a dreaded complication of pregnancy in which there is an abnormally high blood pressure in a pregnant woman and protein in urine, and this could progress to Eclampsia in which there’s other signs involving the liver, blood and the nervous system where one will experience seizures.

“Urinary tract infections in pregnancy could lead to preterm labour, which means a baby being born after week 28 (week 24 in some developed countries) but before week 37 of pregnancy,” she explains.

She adds that the earlier the baby is born the higher the chance the baby will not survive, due to a poorly developed respiratory system (lungs), hence it is important for the midwives and doctors dealing with Antenatal care not to ignore the urinalysis procedure during expectant mothers’ monthly visits, to save lives.